(a project of Mirravision Trust, Financed by Auroshakti Foundation)

A Psychological Approach to Sri Aurobindo's

The Life Divine

Book II

The Knowledge and the Ignorance-The Spiritual Evolution

Chapter 21

The Order of the Worlds

Part II

Mind and New World

Sri Aurobindo proposes a query which is very significant in the contemporary AI world: Can the human mind design an entirely new world? He himself answers that "an entirely original creation in the void is beyond its possibilities". (CWSA 21-22, pg.808) But the human being can grow in consciousness and get exposed to larger realms-to higher supra-rational planes and supra-physical planes and can get directly influenced by them. In the process, he creates new planes and worlds within him, even creates a Divine Image and forms of gods. But these are not new worlds but a revelation of higher powers of consciousness which were so longer "separated by the veil of the material Nescience." (Ibid, pg.809) This veil was necessary so that these greater possibilities are put behind in order that the work of the physical world develops itself. But that work has its sequel when the veil is partially lifted so that the higher forces can put their influences into human existence.

Consciousness and Supra-physical worlds

The scientific mind-set which views the material world as the only basic reality would tend to believe that the supra-rational and supra-physical worlds are secondary to the material world. But this is a superficial view. However if Consciousness is the real creative Power then it can produce different worlds as formations of itself. (Ibid, pg.810)These non-physical worlds are relevant to the subliminal or inner being in life (and relevant too after death). They would have the same reality as the physical world.

Physical world and Supra-physical worlds

If it is considered that the higher supra-physical worlds are secondary to the physical world and develop out of it, then the procedure must have been enacted by some All-Soul in its emergence by a process which is not understood. (Ibid) But actually we find the physical world is a derivatory of the higher worlds and is partly dependent on them in its evolutionary sojourn. Indeed, immense ranges of powers and influences descend covertly upon us from the Overmind and higher mind and higher vital ranges. (Ibid) Some of them get realized in the physical world, others wait for the proper time and circumstance for revelation.

Higher planes are involutionary planes

We do not create the higher planes or worlds but they always exist in the cosmic consciousness as involutionary planes that run alongside evolutionary planes. In fact each evolutionary plane manifests perfectly when it is influenced by the corresponding higher involutionary plane. For example when the evolutionary life-plane develops, it receives influences from the higher involutionary Life-world to reveal itself fully. Likewise when the evolutionary mind-plane develops, it receives influences from the higher involutionary Mind-world so that it can expand itself beyond the matter-bound mentality. Similarly the supramental and spiritual worlds are preparing to exert their influences on the evolutionary being and their pressure can alone liberate us from the Inconscience which is our starting point. The all-conscient Godhead is concealed in the Inconscience and will be gradually released by the pressure of the Supramental world. In fact, we do not create the gods but gradually manifest the Divine. "We do not create God as a myth of our consciousness, but are instruments for a progressive manifestation of the Divine in the material being." (Ibid, pg.811)

But we have certain experiences in our inner or subliminal being that raises a question against any priority to the supraphysical worlds. Firstly, in the vision of after-death experience, we seek a supraphysical prolongation of the earth-experience, not of the actual supraphysical worlds. Secondly, in the involutionary Life-worlds we find the presence of darkness, falsehood, incapacity and evil. Of course these exist in the vital worlds but from where do they come to the involutionary Life-Worlds (Vital worlds). They were supposed to form during evolution but how can they exist in the involutionary worlds? After all the involuntary worlds represent a gradual diminution of knowledge, cognition and delight of being but that does not justify an intrusion of darkness, falsehood and evil. One possibility might be they are projected from the Inconscience. Another possibility is they "were already created as part of a parallel gradation to the involutionary descent, a gradation forming a stair for evolutionary ascension towards Spirit". (Ibid, pg.812) Such an ascending gradation would serve two purposes. It would contain pre-formations of good and evil that evolves in the struggle for the evolutionary growth of the soul. Or they would be formations existing for themselves for their independent satisfaction, exercising on evolutionary beings their characteristic influence. (Ibid, pg.813)

These involutionary worlds of a larger Life seem to hold both the luminous or divine powers as well as the darker formations of the titanic, Rakshasic and demoniac powers in a medium where they can fully develop their independent and unique potentials in a characteristic harmony. In contrast these powers remain mixed in a complex interaction in the evolutionary world in the context of a many-sided evolution towards a final integration. (Ibid) We cannot understand their origin in the evolutionary worlds but can perceive more clearly their origin and reason of existence in the involutionary worlds from where they influence the human perception of the worlds of light and darkness, heaven and hell.(Ibid, pg.814)

Likewise we have a greater involutionary or typal Mind-world which have their own ideas and principles that influence our earth-being. They form a base from which their formations can be cast into the complex evolutionary nature. They throw partial formations into the outer evolutionary mind where they mix with other powers and get diluted and impure. (Ibid)

If we view at man's other-worldly accounts, we therefore find a larger Life free of the restrictions and imperfections of earth-nature. It can be said that these other-worldly accounts are based on imagination but actually they have also elements of intuition and divination and an element of subliminal contact. (Ibid, pg.814-815) But man usually translates these supraphysical realities into his own forms and images through which he can enter into communication with them and make them to a certain extent effective.

The experience of an after-death continuation of a modified earth-life can be explained on this basis. Or else it might be a subjective post-mortal state which exercises a natural attraction to the vital being after exit from the body. However, apart from these Life-states, the traditional accounts of other-worldly existence mention, though rarely, higher grades of existence not based on the vital but on the mental and spiritual-mental principles. (Ibid, pg.815)

This system of gradation of evolutionary and higher involutionary worlds is of fundamental value to understand the nature of existence. The other-worlds are not quite apart from the material worlds but penetrate and envelop them and exercise a formative and directive force that is not easily calculable. (Ibid, pg.816)

If Matter is considered as the only basic reality, then all that is being evolved, Life, Mind and Spirit itself have manifested from the Inconscience where the Superconscious was dormant and exerted a pressure for their manifestation. In such a scenario, Mind could not become master or creator or be transformative or liberative, Life could not become dominant and determinative and Spirit would always be dependent on Matter. There would be no scope of free and full manifestation of the powers of the being. Spirit, Mind and Life would have no uniquely native field to manifest themselves fully. "It is not easy to believe in the inevitability of this self-limitation if Spirit is the creator and these principles have an independent existence and are not products, results or phenomena of the energy of Matter." (Ibid, pg.817)

Hypothetical alternatives

But it may be reasoned that as the Infinite Reality is free in its play of consciousness, it may not bind itself in the nescience of Matter. There would then be several alternatives of the manifestation that can hypothetically manifest without getting involved in Matter:

(a) There could be a contrary order where instead of Matter, the unity of spiritual being would be the matrix and the Energy at work is a self-aware spiritual existence in movement;

(b) Or it might be an order where the Spirit's innate power of conscious-Force or Will would realise its direct possibilities in itself and not as now through the restrictions of Life-Force in matter;

(c) It might be an order where the self-existent Bliss is the first principle and universal condition; and

(d) It might be a world-order where the Supermind would be the dominant principle from the beginning, "the manifestation would then be a multiplicity of beings finding through the free and luminous play of their divine individuality all the manifold joy of their difference in oneness." (Ibid)

The series need not stop here. We find that Mind is hampered by Life-in-Matter and the tussle between Mind and Life causes great difficulty. Life is itself restricted by inertia of Matter and finally by mortality. But there can be a world-order where neither Life nor Matter but Mind is the dominant first order of existence. Matter would be the result of the universal Mind-Force working itself in life. Unlike the present scenario where the Mind-principle is enmeshed in Matter, in the new scenario Mind would be master of its material, much more subtle and elastic than at present. Similarly there can be a world-order where Life dominates instead of Matter. Life is able to deploy its forces, its more elastic and variable desires not resisted by disintegrating forces. "The separate dominance of each principle of being is an eternal possibility in the manifestation of being, -- given always that they are principles distinct in their dynamic power and mode of working, even though one in original substance." (Ibid, pg.818)

The Status of the Higher Worlds

We are not concerned with the philosophical possibility of the higher suprarational worlds. We are also not bound by an exclusive belief that the physical world is the only truth. We see that the higher worlds represent different harmonies from the harmony of the physical universe and they correspond to a different system and ordering of principles. We are not concerned whether they coincide in time and space with our own world for they can, being of a subtle nature, occupy another field of space and another field of time. What is important is to know whether they are different universes, each complete and independent by itself or "are different scales of one graded and interwoven system of being, parts therefore of one complex universal system". (Ibid.pg.819) The second alternative seems to be true as these higher planes are at every moment acting on and in communication with our own plane of being but might not be conclusive. However the moment we go inwards to our subliminal or inner being, we exceed our physical being and get inklings of higher action. "We find even that the human being can project himself partially into these higher planes under certain conditions, even while in the body; a fortiori must he be able to do it when out of the body, and to do it then completely, since there is no longer the disabling condition of the physical life bound down to the body". (Ibid) Sri Aurobindo notes the importance of the consequences of this phenomenon and this power of transference. On one hand is justified the tradition of a temporary sojourn of the human conscious being in other supraphysical worlds after dissolution of the physical body. On the other hand they open the possibility of action of the higher planes on the physical being liberating the powers of mind, life and spirit for their onward evolutionary journey.

In regard to the higher, supraphysical worlds, Sri Aurobindo makes a very important statement: "These worlds are not in their original creation subsequent in order to the physical universe but prior to it, -- prior, if not in time, in their consequential sequence". (Ibid, pg.820) Thus there is a descending gradation of higher worlds and consequent to that, an ascending grade of evolutionary worlds that has a spiritual perspective in rising to the levels which the higher worlds indicate. That means the higher worlds do not evolve from the plane of Matter or Inconscience and are neither the creations of the human soul. The human being can only have reflex images of the higher worlds in his embodied being and can make the soul responsive to them, facilitating an intertwining of their influences with actions at the physical plane. He can project his own higher vital and mental action to the action of these higher worlds. It is possible that he can create a kind of "subjective annexe" (Ibid) to these supraphysical worlds of a half-unreal character-an artificial environment corresponding to his attempts to image these worlds -heavens and hells created by his image-creating faculty but all these endeavours do not qualify to create a real plane of being that can act independently. (Ibid, pg.820-821)

Actually these higher worlds are coeval with the physical universe. Life, Mind and Spirit in the physical being presupposes their existence; " for these powers are developed here by two co-operating forces, an upward-tending force from below, an upward-drawing and downward-pressing force from above....It is this upward-drawing action and this pressure, this insistence from above, which explain the constant influence of the spiritual, mental and vital worlds upon the physical plane". (Ibid, pg.821) Given the complexity of the universe and the seven principles which are interwoven in every part of the system such an constant pressure and influence is inevitable (Ibid) (the seven principles being Existence, Consciousness-Force, Bliss and Supermind that comprise the higher worlds and the evolutionary worlds of Matter, Life, Mind with an eighth principle, our soul or psyche).

Higher Worlds and the Subliminal Being

Behind our ego-bound outer being is our inner or subliminal being or subliminal self that is not linked to the ego but is supported by the soul-principle, the psychic being. This subliminal being is a projection of the higher worlds in the world born of the Inconscience. The higher powers of the higher worlds act secretly and continuously through the subliminal self so that when we start to live within, to look within our mental, vital and spiritual boundaries start to widen. There is snapping of the bonds that held Life, Mind and Soul to their first limitations and we can have a glimpse of a larger kingdom of self that is not open to earth-life. So long as man lives in his narrow surface existence, he can build a superstructure that is imaginative and ideative that ultimately leads nowhere. But if one learns to live within as one's greatest spiritual necessity, one opens up to a larger Consciousness, a larger Life. "An action from within and an action from above can overcome the predominance of the material formula, diminish and finally put an end to the power of the Inconscience, reverse the order of the consciousness, substitute the Spirit for Matter as his conscious foundation of being and liberate its higher powers to their complete and characteristic expression in the life of the soul embodied in Nature." (Ibid, pg.822)

- By Dr. Soumitra Basu